The present study investigated how consequence value influences affect, attention, and learning while reading instructional texts, and if text difficulty moderates these effects. Participants studied four instructional texts on research methods in a 2 × 2 consequence value (high vs. low) × text difficulty (easy vs. difficult) within-subjects experiment. Consequence value was manipulated by assi...

In string compactification on a manifold X , in addition to the string scale and the normal scales of low-energy particle physics, there is a Kaluza-Klein scale 1 R associated with the size of X . We present an argument that generic string models with low-energy supersymmetry have, after moduli stabilization, bulk fields with masses which are parametrically lighter than 1 R . We discuss the imp...

Although cynical beliefs about human nature yield numerous adverse consequences for individuals’ life outcomes and well-being, very little is known about factors that counteract the development of cynical beliefs. Drawing from the literature on the “education effect” describing the importance of education in overcoming close-mindedness and negative views of others, we propose that education can...

We identify the causal effect of trade-integration with China and Eastern Europe on voting in Germany from 1987 to 2009. Looking at the entire political spectrum, we find that only extreme-right parties respond significantly to trade integration. Their vote share increases with import competition and decreases with export access opportunities. We unpack mechanisms using reduced form evidence an...

Theory and research suggest that people can increase their happiness through simple intentional positive activities, such as expressing gratitude or practicing kindness. Investigators have recently begun to study the optimal conditions under which positive activities increase happiness and the mechanisms by which these effects work. According to our positive-activity model, features of positive...

Family mediation dovetails with family therapy approaches, in particular the brief, solution-based family therapies, such that these two intervention approaches may be considered quite similar. Is it OK for mediators to employ therapeutic methods and methodologies? Is this still mediation or something else? This article explores these issues, examining and comparing mediation and therapy approa...

Karoly Varga is Senior Research Fellow at the Sociological Research Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. He was recently involved in an evaluation of achievement motivation training programmes in several countries on behalf of UNI DO. Since the first experiment in India by McCelland and Winter (1969), work on achievement motivation development has been attempted in various cultures, ...

Whilst estimation of the marginal (total) causal effect of a point exposure on an outcome is arguably the most common objective of experimental and observational studies in the health and social sciences, in recent years, investigators have also become increasingly interested in mediation analysis. Specifically, upon evaluating the total effect of the exposure, investigators routinely wish to m...